Trust Me (One Night with Sole Regret 11)

His thumb rubbed his cum into her tingling skin as he pumped his hips, and then he stiffened before shuddering against her. He collapsed forward, squashing her into the mattress, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him closer. He could never be close enough, not even if they merged into one being.

“I love you,” she whispered, and kissed his neck.

“Your pussy wrecked me,” he murmured. “I wanted you to have more.”

She grinned. Such a giving lover, even if his pillow talk was often less than romantic. “You wrecked my pussy,” she said. “I couldn’t take anymore.”

“Give me an hour to recover and we’ll see about that.”

“One hour?” She kissed his neck again. “I’ll probably need around eight, but you can try.”

After a few minutes, she made him move to the bed so she could use the bathroom. When she returned, he was already asleep. She climbed in next to him, and he immediately spooned up against her, one hand cupping her breast, showing he wasn’t quite asleep after all.

“I love you,” he murmured. “I want to make sure I tell you that often.”

“I love you,” she returned, reaching behind her to get a hand on some bare skin.

“Wake me in an hour.”

She might have if she hadn’t been bone weary and completely satisfied. Neither of them stirred until sunlight streamed in from the triangular-shaped windows above the bed and a very excited black dog jumped on the bed to lick their faces.

“I thought we were leaving early,” Nikki said from the foot of the bed.

Melanie lifted her head from the pillow, only to get pummeled in the face by a wagging tail. She lay back and lifted her hand to shield herself from the dog’s enthusiastic assault.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Beau,” Gabe said sharply. “Down.”

Beau got in a few extra licks and wags before he hopped off the bed and sat on his haunches next to Lady, who was staring at them from the floor beside the bed.

“Time to go to the lake,” Nikki said.

“We’ll be out in a while,” Gabe said, drawing Melanie’s body beneath him and settling between her hips.

She smiled up at him, wondering how a man so sleep tousled and with over a day’s growth of beard could look so fucking sexy.

“How long is a while?” Nikki asked.

“Depends on how long it takes me to convince your friend here that she needs a morning quickie.”

Melanie grinned up at him, her heart threatening to burst with overflowing love and happiness. “Not long then, Nikki,” she said.

Nikki released an exasperated breath. “The newly in love are so annoying. All they want to do is fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Beau barked as if in agreement.

“Twenty minutes,” Gabe said, his hands sliding beneath the covers to prepare Melanie’s body for the already hard dick that was poking her in the thigh. “Take the dogs out with you. They don’t need to see this.”

“I don’t need to see this,” Nikki said. She whistled at the dogs so they’d follow her out of the room.

Gabe peered over his shoulder at the shut door. “I figured she was the type who’d like to watch.”

“More the type who’d like to participate,” Melanie said.

“I’d never let her put her hands on you,” he said. “You’re mine.”

“I am,” she agreed. “And I’m not going to get my full twenty minutes if you don’t stop talking.”

“I just said that to get rid of her. It will be an hour at least.” He leaned over her and opened the top drawer of the nightstand beside the bed. Within minutes, several of the toys he’d designed were laid out beside her like surgical instruments. “I’m in the mood to play this morning.” He drew the flat of his tongue over one of her nipples, and she shuddered. “Are you game?”

“Hmm,” she said, trying to make her face look serious. “Play with my gorgeous fiancé and his bangin’ toys—both of which give me orgasm after orgasm—or sit on a hot boat and poke poor defenseless baby flies with fishing hooks? Decisions, decisions.”

Gabe correctly presumed she preferred the first option. By the time they left the bedroom—thoroughly funned out, recently showered, and wearing matching smiles—it was near noon. Nikki had apparently given up on them hours ago and was sitting on the back deck with her laptop.

“We thought you’d be ready to go by now,” Melanie teased as she peeked out the sliding door. Melanie had never explored the back yard of Gabe’s house. They always sat on the front porch, so when she heard the sound of running water, she ventured out onto the deck to investigate. Nikki closed her laptop and hopped up to join Melanie at the deck railing.

“There’s a creek down there,” Nikki said, pointing Melanie’s attention to its source. “And a little waterfall that feeds it.”

“Oh wow!” Melanie said. “How did I miss this?”

“Probably because when you’re with Gabe, you spend all your time on your back.”

Melanie swatted at her, but Nikki dodged the playful slap.

“We should set up the wedding over there, under those trees,” Nikki said, pointing out a small clearing next to the waterfall that wasn’t exactly level but might hold a few dozen chairs.

“Yes, yes, yes! It’s perfect.” She gave Nikki an enthusiastic hug. “Is that what you’ve been working on all morning? Wedding plans?”

“Uh . . . sure,” Nikki said. “Did you really not know this gorgeous area was back here?”

Melanie flushed. “Nope. Guess I have been spending too much time on my back.”

Nikki laughed. “And who can blame you?”

“Are you ladies ready?” Gabe asked from the open patio door. “I got the boat hitched to the truck.”

“You didn’t tell me you had your own waterfall,” Melanie accused, holding her hand out to him so he’d join her at the railing.

“That little thing,” Gabe said. “It’s hardly a trickle.”

“It’s magnificent.” She pointed to the clearing Nikki had brought to her attention. “And I want to marry you right there.”

“Right there, huh?” he said, drawing her against him and kissing her. “I could go for that. Or right here. Or anywhere you’ll have me.”

A pair of hands wedged between them and pushed them apart. “Don’t you two start that again,” Nikki said, “or we’ll never make it to the lake, and I’ve been promising Beau all morning that he could go swimming.”

“Are you sure Lady will be okay to go with us?” Melanie asked Gabe. “What if she gets her cast wet?”

“Good point. I’ll have to bring her leash to keep her on the boat.”

The five of them had a wonderful afternoon together. Nikki spent most of her time sunbathing and swimming with Beau. Poor Lady was stuck on the boat, but seemed happy to rest at Gabe’s side while he baited his hook and Melanie’s. They caught a few largemouth bass, which Gabe insisted they’d have for supper. Melanie was fine with eating their catch as long as she didn’t have to clean them. In her opinion, fish guts were even less appealing than putting maggots on hooks.

The next few days passed in a blur, like they were on a carefree vacation. They hiked the woods around Gabe’s house, visited with his parents, rode ATVs, tested several prototypes—including the New-And-Improved Sex Stallion—and had dinner out at the Oasis to enjoy the spectacular sunset over Lake Travis. Nikki often accompanied them, but she’d been spending quite a bit of time on her computer. When Melanie asked what she was up to, Nikki told her she was making plans. For the wedding, Melanie presumed, but Nikki wouldn’t share any of them with her.

“A surprise,” she said.

Melanie was so enjoying her new life with the man she loved, the friend she adored, and the two dogs who liked her almost as much as they adored Nikki that she had completely forgotten about Gabe’s paternity test until one afternoon when they were sitting on the porch swing and his phone rang. As he read his phone’s s

creen, he said, “Guess I’m about to find out if I’m going to be a father.”

And before Melanie could steel her nerves for the news to come, Gabe took a deep, steadying breath and accepted the call.

Chapter Fifteen

Gabe had almost convinced himself that this trouble-free life with Melanie was his new reality. He’d intentionally unplugged from the outside world. He hadn’t contacted Jacob or Adam again. He wasn’t sure how Owen and his brother were faring. He didn’t know if Kellen had made amends with his best friend—who he’d kissed on the mouth, for fuck’s sake. And he hadn’t given the prospect of fathering Lindsey’s baby much thought. He had been thinking about knocking up Melanie, however. The more time they spent together, the more he realized that he was ready to start a family—with her, not with some girl from a one-night orgy—and that the only element lacking in his life was a stable career. But he did have money saved up—enough to get him through several years of expenses.

So when he accepted the call from the DNA testing service, he expected bad news. Expected it because life had been going so right for him for the past several days. Different from his norm, yes. But right.

“Yes, this is Gabriel Banner,” he said to the woman on the phone.